Structure

Special ReportTranscripts for Section 8 of Episode 69

Time

Summary

50:07

The Amnesty Committee sitting in Port Elizabeth was supposed to hear the amnesty applications of the murderers of Easter Cape student activist Sizwe Kondile this week, but after bureaucratic bungling by the Amnesty Committee and yet more fancy footwork by the now familiar team of lawyers it had to be postponed.

In November last year Dirk Coetzee described Sizwe Kondile’s death to the Amnesty Committee in Durban. // Now, drops were administered to Sizwe Kondile in a drink whilst we were sitting around drinking ourselves, opening beer and whatever other drinks, alcohol. And after about 20 minutes to about half an hour Mr. Kondile started, he was sitting down, uneasy; he looked quite normal again to me when he arrived and as I said not like someone with serious brain injuries that I could pick up. He eventually fell over backwards and lied on his back and at a stage either Col Nick van Rensburg or Maj. Flemington said ”well chaps let’s get on with the job.” In the mean time the two junior officers of Maj. Archy Flemington, with a Land Cruiser bakkie, brought dense bushveld wood, big logs of it with tyres. And one of Maj. Archy Flemington’s men, this slender built tallish man, light hair, took a makarov pistol with a silencer on and whilst Kondile was lying on his back, shot him on top ...more

This week, almost a year later, the four policemen Nicolas Janse van Rensburg, Hermanus Barend De Plessis, Johannes Gottfried Raath and Gerhard Nicolas Erasmus came to ask for amnesty for the murder. They never spoke at the hearing. Their lawyers argued that Dirk Coetzee’s amnesty application contradicted their clients’ version of events. They demanded a postponement so Coetzee could be present for cross examination and if the Truth Commission could give them the correct documentation.

We suggest with respect Mr. Chairman that justice will not be served in these applications unless Mr. Coetzee is here and unless he is cross examined and we suggest that that should be done before we continue with our applications.

We intend only to go into the point itself placing our client’s version to the different applicants and showing them certain documents which relate directly to the incident itself. We certainly do not go further than that. // Your client’s version is completely contradictory to theirs. Do you agree? // Yes, as to the underlying reason as to why Mr. Kondile was killed yes, certainly and for that reason it’s important for us to at least protect his version in that respect. // On this aspect Mr. Coetzee would be an essential witness.

For Mrs. Charity Kondile, Sizwe’s mother, this was a frustrating day. // Truly speaking I blame the policemen today who were supposed to have been telling their story, because what Coetzee said is irrelevant at this moment. As far as I’m concerned they should have said what they had come to say, what they know. And then, at a later date they could have a cross examination. The fact that today they refused to talk, I think they are playing for time. They’re not going to tell the truth, according to what I’ve got in front of me in the documents. There is something they don’t want to come to light, especially that part of his torture. I think they’re running away.